Did he do the right thing?

Guy found disc with source code of Starcraft 1. Asked the internet if he should mail it to Blizzard or release the contents to the wild.

He sent it to Blizzard and got a massive pile of swag for his trouble.

A gold master is obviously a real thing but you wouldn't make one for the source code unless maybe it was meant for display or something.

No. Fuck Blizzard.

I believe it could exist, never a bad idea to have some physical backups of your work

What harm would of it done to Blizzard if he were to dump it on the web?

Probably butt fucking nothing

you know he was a paid actor and the disk was fake, right?

The source code is something you want to protect though. Consolidating it all and putting it on a single disc-for-display like that is just asking for it to be leaked. I never hear of any other devs doing this

No, but Blizz ninjas would've killed him

A publicity stunt that makes them look cringe?

I'm 100% on board with this. In this particular case however it doesn't really matter because the mechanics of StarCraft have already been thoroughly figured out and reimplemented (OpenBW for example is replay-compatible and it'd go out of sync if they weren't): SC1 source code wouldn't be of any particular use because it wouldn't be any better starting point for a modern operating system port of a client than extant projects, and it wouldn't save efforts on reverse-engineering the exact way the game used to work because that has already been done.

At best it would be an interesting curio. Who knows what kind of bizarre FIXME-style of comments and shit the source might have contained.

No. Corporations aren't your "friends". The people who made the original Starcraft have all moved on other than the "Artists" who literally became SJWs.

They wouldn't be able to profit from SC remaster as easily. Also the game would be easier to pirate and modded versions of the game would become alternatives to regular SC, fracturing the competitive community

Fucking Redditor piece of garbage. HE HAD THE FUCKING CHANCE TO BTFO BLIZZARD QND HE CHOOSE TO BE A "NICE GUY :)"

pff he didn't have shit. He "gave it to blizzard" because he had nothing to dump, just a blank CD with a fake label printed on it

>modded versions of the game would become alternatives to regular SC, fracturing the competitive community
Is this bad?

he got money? or just a thanks because I would ask for money

Kinda, from what i remember reality of this is that by the time he had a choice his identity had connected. "Just take the bullet and just Leak It Anyway" is easy to say when you ain't the one who could eat the consequence.

Basically, he did the wrong thing in even asking instead of just anonymously leaking it but he did what was "Right" for his situation of already having outed himself and Grogs got butthurt because THEY didn't benefit after his cocktease. That said code retention is easier if it is out in the wild (though it can still end up lost if people don't care about something), so it is a shame in that sense, Square(-Enix) for example had fire that we felt repercussions of for years due lost source code of their circa PS1 era games.

It'd be bad for Blizzard, which is what he was asking

Some gear and a ticket to blizzworld or somewhere

He got some games, free gear and a VIP pass to blizzcon all expenses paid.

Brainlet here, can someone explain what a skilled nerd could accomplish with this thing ?

If he had just returned the disc without all the publicity bullshit, then yes.

Seeking brownie points is what makes it kind of bothersome. Sure, me and others would have loved to get the source code, but I get it. Legally and morally speaking it belongs to Blizzard.

Had I found it, I dunno what I truly would've done though. However I do like to think I would have remained quiet and collectively calm while I despised a plan to securely dump it after a few years.

so basically nothing

>VIP pass to blizzcon
so nothing
marvelous

Free open source ports to nearly any device someone would be willing to develop some for. Also mods, lots and lots of mods.

Basically what happened when iD Software released the Doom source code.

Nah, just return it to Blizzard.

Here is what I would do if I ever found something like the OP
>make copies
>clean out my closet, get a bunch of my old shit and put all of it and the original CD in a cardboard box
>drive out to a city about 20 minutes away and drop the box off at a goodwill
>wait a few months
>get a shitty used burner laptop, go to a library or a bus station where a lot of people use the free wifi (somewhere a few counties over)
>upload it to a few places (including archive.org)
>???
>PROFIT!!!

But I thought all games could be modded (on PC)

With the source code, you can do a LOT more.

This except I'd keep the original for collection purposes. Imagine your wife's son'sface when Starcraft 5 comes out and you say hey little guy i have the source code for the original!

Find out basically every single piece of the uncompiled code and 100% transparency how the game worked, no reverse-engineering experimentation needed. This would obviously easy up work on modding and making perfect clones effortless because EVERYTHING is out in the open.

Compare to it to walking around a house and needing to figure out how all powerlines and pipes go when building a copy of it and just getting to see the blueprints and immediately knowing the way the source house functions and being able to make infinite copies of those blueprints that you can easily alter, to put it VERY roughly.

>keeping the original
bad idea

Why's that? Are Blizzard going to come track me down? I live in the wilderness in godfucknowhereistan.

Well, in that case it's fine. I would rather wash my hands of any evidence, however.

Is the state of RTS so bad that the code to a decades old game matters?

>Is the state of RTS so bad
yes
>that the code to a decades old game matters?
maybe not so much but the potential hurts to think about

Well, DEAD GENRE aside Starcraft was already pretty well-documented, hence why we have people also saying other people overreacted about this whole thing in the first place, but reproductions will always be reproductions. the actual issue is that it denies "Redundancy" in the point of view of keeping the code (and therefore the game) safe for future generations.

But you know, DEAD GENRE, people gonna cling to every piece of fucking hope they can for a revival, apparently some even have hope for the C&C remakes out of sheer desperation. The poor bastards.

>go to public libraries
>set up throwaway accounts
>dump on various file share sites and post on various websites including blizzard, changing libraries often
There would be literally zero consequences

Using normie-accessible methods, would it even really be possible to upload the source code without it being traced back to you?

I feel like this was less "I want my Blizzard good boy points" and more "I don't want to get sued"

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yes, see

this, fuck him. All that modding potential, gone.